Black Lions – Roman Wolves

In 1896, Ethiopia gained victory over Italy, hitting back at its first attempt to conquer the East African country. When Mussolini and the fascists came to power in 1922, the still abstract risk of a further attack became concrete. In 1935, Italy began an assault on Ethiopia once again, subjecting the country to a brutal war, not shying away from the use of poisonous gas: a crime, paradoxically, at once omnipresent and barely remembered in today’s Italy. Haile Gerima, veteran of the L.A. Rebellion and the New Black Cinema, worked for 30 years on his monumental exploration of the history and mythology of Italian colonialism, also commemoration of the Ethiopian resistance. From archive material, conversations with historical witnesses and his father’s plays, he weaves together a panorama of self-affirmation and colonial murder, of European complicity and Black solidarity. Black Lions – Roman Wolves sets Ethiopian voices against lasting colonialist lies – and the recordings of the resistance against the reproduction of colonial images. Against the entrenched visual dominance of the colonisers. A film for the present as well as for the coming decades. (Fbian Tietke)

Haile Gerima, born in 1946 in Gondar, Ethiopia, studied filmmaking at UCLA, where he became associated with the L.A. Rebellion movement, earning international acclaim for films such as Bush Mama (1976), Harvest: 3,000 Years (1976), and Ashes and Embers (1982). With his wife, the filmmaker Shirikiana Aina, he co-founded the distribution company Mypheduh Films and the production company Negodwad Productions, and later opened Sankofa Video, Books & Café in Washington D.C. He is Professor Emeritus at Howard University and continues to lecture and give workshops in the U.S. and internationally.

Director Haile Gerima. Screenplay Haile Gerima. Editing Haile Gerima. Music Aschalew Fetene. Sound Design Merawi Gerima. Animation Andres Jaramillo. Co-Producers Haile Gerima, Shirikiana Aina Gerima. Production company Negod Gwad Productions (Washington D.C., USA).

World sales Mypheduh Films

Films: 1972: Hour Glass (short film), Child of Resistance. 1976: Bush Mama, Harvest: 3,000 Years (Berlinale Forum 1976). 1978: Wilmington 10 – U.S.A. 10,000 (documentary). 1982: Ashes and Embers (Berlinale Forum 1983). 1985: After Winter: Sterling Brown (documentary). 1993: Sankofa (Berlinale Competition 1993). 1994: Imperfect Journey (documentary). 1999: Adwa – An African Victory (documentary). 2008: Teza. 2026: Black Lions – Roman Wolves.